


Morning Spent on Reflection

by AceVonS



Series: Mr. President [4]
Category: Designated Survivor (TV), NCIS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, F-bombs, M/M, Not Beta Read, alternative universe, gay relationship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2020-01-25 14:33:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18576445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AceVonS/pseuds/AceVonS
Summary: Tony loved early mornings when he was the only one awake, or at least he used to. They were calm and time for reflection.





	Morning Spent on Reflection

Tony loved the early mornings when he was the only one awake, often it was the wee hours of the morning really. He'd go to the bed early the night before and wake up before some had even gone to bed. 

Sometimes he would kiss Tom good morning. Tom would laugh because to him it would be a goodnight's kiss. They both were early risers, Tony because he got into the habit in the military school that his father sent him to. Tom, on the other hand, woke early naturally, he preferred to go to bed early and get up early. The presidency was really mucking up his sleep schedule. He gotten used to it, he didn't like it, but was used to it. 

The first few months at the office had been hard, for both. They both had operated on only a few hours of sleep per night, five hours without interruptions had been a miracle. It had been hell, but they had managed. And back then, sleep had been the least of their problems. 

They found a way to deal with the mess without losing themselves and each other in it. To them, their country, their family and their relationship was a cause worth fighting for.

Tony smiled as he remembered the early days at the office as he closed the bedroom door, so Tom could get a bit more sleep. It had been hard, but they had loved each other fiercely and that put a smile on Tony’s face.

 

He yawned, he needed a cup of coffee. They had a coffee maker in the residence, but he wanted something a bit fancier than a plain black coffee. So, he figured, he’d make an excursion to the main kitchen and use the fancy state of the art coffee maker. It looked like the control panel on the bridge of the USS Enterprise. It made Tony happy to use it.

He hoped that no one was in the kitchen at this hour because he couldn't deal with the staff right now. They were good people and only trying to do their jobs. But it was too damn early, he just wanted some fancy coffee and perhaps a sandwich. A sandwich that he made by himself. It was weird to think that such a simple task as making your own sandwich was such a novelty.

No one had ever said anything about how annoying it was to have people around you all the time. Asking to do your damn sandwich for you. He wished Michelle Obama had written her memoir earlier, perhaps he would’ve been wiser then.

Even right now he could feel the secret service following his every step, they were discreet... but they were still there. They, too, were just doing their job, but it annoyed him. He had been a federal agent for more than ten years before he had become the first gentleman. He could take care of himself, he had taken down terrorists and dismantled a mafia family, he still opted out when Tom had to go to Philly. 

Tony sighed, he didn’t know why he was so irritable this morning. He definitely wasn’t pregnant, so those mood swings were out of the question. He snorted at his thoughts, a pregnant male, that would be a sight!

Yes, Tony liked the mornings and he couldn't wait for the time when he was the only one awake again. If New York was a city that never slept, then the White House was a house that did exactly the same. Someone was always awake. Someone was always working. And if everyone else were asleep in their beds, the secret service agents were ever vigilant. 

He felt caged in and he understood. These moods came and went, he just had to ride it out. 

 

Tony was out of luck when he got to the kitchen.

"Sir, what can I do for you?" The executive chef asked. She was hard at work, making sure everything was ready for the day.

"As you were, I can manage." Tony gave a tired smile to the chef and made himself a cup of coffee. He decided to skip the bread and go back to the residence. He was in no mood to be around other humans, so he left before he became rude.

"You have a good day." He stifled a yawn as he nodded to the chef before he left.

"You too Sir." The chef smiled back. The first gentleman was well liked around the White House. He knew the names of every employee and made sure they felt welcome. In exchange every employee would try their very best to make life easier for him and the first family. They would be sad to see them go one day.

 

Tony sighed as he sat on the couch. Alone with his coffee, finally he could enjoy the silence. Things had been hectic lately with Christmas coming up and all the planning the went on there. No wonder that he was starting to feel caged. He was used to having the freedom to do as he pleased. Here he was bound by rules and tradition, even if just by being the husband of a male president he was anything but traditional.

If someone had said to him a few years ago, that he would be the one responsible for the White House Christmas. Well, he would've laughed his ass off and recommended that they should get their head examined. But here he was, and he knew he had done a good job.

 

Christmas lights created a gentle light in the room and Tony smiled as he sipped his coffee. He didn't bother to put on more lights, this was nice. Time lost meaning as he sat on the couch with his coffee and let his thoughts go where they wanted to go.

He knew when he had met Tom that his life would change, but he hadn't imagined it would happen so fast. He had thought that before Tom became the President there would be a long road ahead of them. Campaigning et cetera. And a lgbtqia+ president was such a pipe dream that Tony thought it would take a lot hard work to get the votes. Blood and sweat and tears so to speak. He would have preferred that road instead of the one they were forced to take.

At the time Tom had been chosen as the designated survivor for the State of the Union. The explosion had made him the President. Everyone, including them, had been in shock and scared out of their wits. The Capitol had been the symbol of American democracy and it had been attacked. Everyone had lost someone in the explosion and people were feeling unsafe. 

Tom had had some formidable people against him from the beginning, people who thought that he shouldn’t be the president. People that thought they could take his place, by cunning or by force. They had all failed because they had not been prepared for the fact that Tom could command respect as well as the troops. And he always had Tony on his six. Tom was a man of integrity and no one could fling shit at him and make it stick. He wasn't that sort of a man.

Someone had even tried to form a theory that Tom wasn't a man at all. That he was an android created in secret in some government facility. They had laughed at that theory so hard and long that they ended up crying and gasping for breath. Even now it made Tony grin into his coffee.

Sometimes the biggest issue was his sexuality, but they had overcome that as well, mostly. There were always haters, but haters gonna hate. Tony thought. They’d had to deal with a lot of shit from the conservative press and the Bible belt conservatives in the beginning, and sometimes they still had to deal with it. 

 

Tony himself had not been prepared for the role he'd had to take on as the spouse of the new president. He didn't think anyone was, even if they came here from the campaign trail. He'd become the first gentleman in a blink of an eye. It had been an adjustment from how things had been before. 

He couldn't help it, he thought of things as before the bombing and after. 

From the moment Tom had opened the window in the secret location they'd been taken to, he'd known. The moment they had seen the pillars of flames rising from the Capitol, he'd been certain. While Tom had stared at the sight, frozen, Tony had known that he'd never be just an agent again. He fought to accept that in the car on their way to the White House. He'd been scared, battling with his knowledge that his career wasn't going to remain the same. All the while he had been calm outwards, he couldn't panic, Tom needed him. Hell, the nation needed him to remain calm and to calm down his spouse as well. 

He had made his peace with that in the first weeks they were in the White House as the first couple. This was the way he was going to serve his country. He would be the best damn male FLOTUS he could be. 

But he also couldn't shake the agent persona completely, he still packed heat. The secret service was fine with it as long as he let them do their job. It had not always been easy. His instincts as a law enforcement officer where so deep that sometimes he just reacted. Sometimes he got into dangerous situations because of those instincts. He would get his ass chewed, but in the end his protection detail understood where he came from. Staying out of trouble was getting easier every day, he could trust the secret service to keep him safe. As well as his family. That trust had been hard earned.  
He put away his empty mug and snorted. Kate would be laughing her ass off is she knew about the situation. Hell, he would’ve gotten her back into the secret service and made her his primary agent. He still missed her, she’d been taken too soon.

 

Tony tried to shake these thoughts out of his head. It was no use thinking them now. Past was in the past. Tom had served for what was left of President Richmond’s term successfully. Then campaigned to get elected to the office again. He’d been elected, this time as himself and not as someone’s replacement. 

Now that he was the elected President, they hoped that things would be easier as he had won by a landslide. Tony also hoped that this time around no one would get thrown into federal prison for treason. So far it seemed like the governors were behaving. Last time the governor of Michigan had tried to take control of his state and caused a lot of trouble. His sentence in the federal prison was a well-deserved punishment. It was perhaps a bit nuclear but, in all honesty, the governor had gone there first.

Tony shook his head, he knew there was no reason to think of the past, but that’s where his thoughts had gone. He didn't quite know why the past was so present in his mind now. It could be because Christmas time was always precious to him these days. It reminded him, that things could change for the better and that there was still magic in the world. 

He got up and went to the small coffee maker to brew some more elixir of life. He didn't want to go back to the kitchen and bother the staff, or rather he didn't want to be bothered by the staff.   
The coffee maker was small and quick, and it took no time at all to finish. Tony got himself some more coffee and snuggled back under the cover on the couch. His solitude was soon interrupted by his little girl. 

“Good morning Penny blossom.” Tony greeted her. His voice was only little above a whisper since the rest were still sleeping. Tom would awaken or be woken up soon enough, so he should let the man sleep while he could.

Penny’s eyes sparkled as she spotted Tony. After her dad, he was her favorite person. A shared spot with Leo. “Pops!”

“Shh. The others are still sleeping.” Tony shushed her.

“Oops. Sorry.” Penny grinned not looking apologetic at all.

“Come here you little mischievous pea.” Tony grinned and made room for her.

She loved spending time with her fathers, one on one or together. It didn’t matter. She felt safe, loved and cherished. She had a wish though. She wished her grandmother, mum’s mum, would appreciate that. She often cursed her son in law and his husband when Penny was around. The young girl couldn't understand why her grandmother hated her father so much. Or why she hated Tony. So, Penny wished that she would accept soon, that her fathers loved their family very much. 

She made herself comfortable on Tony chest after the man had put his empty coffee mug away. She soon fell asleep again and Tony was not far behind. That is how Tom found them a bit later, when he emerged from the bedroom dressed in his usual suit.

He fished his phone out of his pocket and took a picture. He would put it as the wallpaper on his phone and computer when he got to the office. They were so damn adorable together like that. Once more Tom sent a silent thanks to the heavens that he had found someone like Tony. 

He smiled as he went to work, and the smile didn't leave his face all day.

**Author's Note:**

> I still haven't read Michelle Obama's Becoming (I am 19% through).


End file.
